Mum's no. 1 skill: time management

I’m not one of those mums you see on magazines. My hair isn’t flawless 100% of the time. Neither is my makeup (in the rare occasions when I get to wear it...).

I’m a real mum, with real-life problems.

Luckily, none of them are major—little time, and constantly wishing we’d somehow win the lottery (which I suppose means we could do with a little extra money, too!).

These are perhaps small problems you have too, but that shouldn’t make you think they’re not important. I’m a firm believer in smart management of both time and money. It’s improved our lives.

It starts with the basics: your household appliances. They should be there to help you, not to hinder you. After extensive online research, we found Indesit’s eXtra line of Dishwashers. Right price, right features.

Take the Start Delay function, for instance. With it, you can load your dishwasher, and set it to start at any time during the day, or night. If there’s one thing that irritates me, it’s seeing a sink full of dirty dishes.

They seem to pile up there, all day, from breakfast to dinner.

So, we’ve started simply placing the dirty dishes in the dishwasher, when there’s not time to wash them by hand. We do this after each meal or snack.

Then, at night, while we’re all asleep, our Indesit dishwasher turns on and starts its job. Waking up to a tidy kitchen and clean dishes is lovely!

Plus, we’re saving money, too. Setting the appliance to start during off-peak hours means we spend less. Plus, the appliance itself is both water and energy efficient.

To sum it up: I spend less time washing up, the bills are lower and our kitchen is tidier! A little extra time and a little extra savings can go a long way in making you healthier, wealthier and (most of all) happier.